Turn a field into a yard

AGGIE00 · Mar 8, 2011

We are in the same boat. We have 16 acres of blackland that was once farmland. I hasn't been tilled in over 30 years and was covered with mosquite trees. I cleared the trees 4 years ago and have since spot sprayed those that were coming back. Last month I finally took a ten foot offset and plowed it 5 times to get all the stumps and remaining saplings out. I then took my small tractor with a 6' disc and drag to smooth it out. I will be broadcasting a combination of common and giant bermuda tomorrow. I'll then drag it again and roll it with a roller I built last weekend out of 55 gallon drums filled with water. Now all I have to do is wait on the rain.

Boeing · Apr 16, 2011

I, too, want to establish a raw dirt 2 acres into a "deer field" I used the diggers of my box scraper to chew up about 1" of the dirt, then I broadcast pelletized lime last month. I can't get back there until June. It's reasonably smooth, no rows, ruts or trenches. Alot of tennis-ball sized rocks. Do I need a tiller? After I broadcast seed....what then? Is that where you drag the chain link fence thing around? (Don't have one of those either) Won't the tractors tires hurt the seeds? How about cover....it gets breezy on top of my ridge I think straw would just blow away. Then there is the watering issue....don't have any water up there. Am I doomed to have a naked field?Thanks

kebo · Apr 16, 2011

Boeing said:
I, too, want to establish a raw dirt 2 acres into a "deer field" I used the diggers of my box scraper to chew up about 1" of the dirt, then I broadcast pelletized lime last month. I can't get back there until June. It's reasonably smooth, no rows, ruts or trenches. Alot of tennis-ball sized rocks. Do I need a tiller? After I broadcast seed....what then? Is that where you drag the chain link fence thing around? (Don't have one of those either) Won't the tractors tires hurt the seeds? How about cover....it gets breezy on top of my ridge I think straw would just blow away. Then there is the watering issue....don't have any water up there. Am I doomed to have a naked field?Thanks

Tractor tires won't hurt the seed. I have actually used the tractor to run back over broadcast seed to pack it down into the soil. Works almost as good as a cultipacker!:laughing: Two acres is a lot to run back over and cover every sq ft with the tires though. When I do that, I only do it on a food plot that is long and rather narrow, so it only takes me about 7 passes to run over it and pack all of the seed down. Sometimes at the hunt club, they will use an old set of mattress box springs tied behind an atv to cover up the seed, or even dragging an old tractor tire will cover up the seed.

Although I am sure some plants/grasses will take hold and do fine from just "scuffing up" the top inch of dirt but really, you probably should dig a little deeper than one inch. If you can arrange it, get a rototiller, disc harrow, or cultivator and work it over good, then broadcast the seed, then cover it with *something* and pray for lots of rain!